


The Whole Truth

by QuantumFeat72



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Non-Binary Chara, Non-Binary Frisk, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Time Travel, W. D. Gaster Being An Asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 21:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5886580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuantumFeat72/pseuds/QuantumFeat72
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans has some important questions for himself and Gaster isn't helping.</p>
<p>A first attempt that I'm honestly just posting because it's the first multichapter fic I've ever actually finished.  Papyrus is in the tags but he doesn't actually have a speaking role here people just talk about him a lot.<br/>I don't like this nearly as much as I did when I wrote it but now that I finally figured out the website there's no backing down so here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Even after all these years, you still can’t shut him up. 

He never does anything, just follows you around and talks to you now and again with that stupid code he invented.  You know what he’s saying, but most days you pretend not to, just to spite him.

Today is different, though.  You feel his presence like a weight on your shoulder as you glare down at your brother’s dust.  You knew this would happen.  In a way, you knew it from the very beginning.  The day you came to the underground.

At first, all you can seem to feel is anger.  Anger at yourself, because you knew and you did nothing.  Anger at the child, who killed him.  You even feel angry at Toriel, for making you promise to look after the human, and Papyrus, for ignoring your warnings, but soon thinking about either of them just makes you sad.

Gaster says something and you ignore him.  He’s the one you’re angry at most of all.

You grab Papyrus’s scarf off the ground and wrap it around your own neck before kneeling to collect the dust.  He deserves a better funeral than you can give him, but that doesn’t mean you won’t try.

As you carry him back towards your house, you wonder how it’s even possible to sprinkle the stuff on his favorite thing, when you don’t know if he HAD a favorite thing.  Papyrus loved  _everything_.

Eventually, you start walking around sprinkling small amounts  of it on everything in Snowdin.  You hate to spread him so thin, but it seems appropriate.  He was always spread thin in life, too.

You wonder how many times you’ve done this before.



You ignore Gaster’s attempt to get your attention and leave the last of Papyrus in the river, so it can carry him all through the underground.



You mutter under your breath that if he wants to say something he can tell you in actual english.

After a moment’s hesitation, he responds.

“You know this doesn’t work as well.”

“Have you considered not talking?”

“It’s important.”

You turn to look at him and cross your arms.

“Well?”

“... I know a way to go back.”

You wonder briefly if he expects you to be grateful, clenching your fists against the surge of anger rising out of the place your stomach would be.  You feel the white dots in your eyes disappear.  “It’s a little late for that now.”

Gaster nods.  “Even now you would not leave without him.  But I do not mean back home, Sans.  I know a way to go back back in time.”

“Going back in time is what got us into this mess.  Leave me alone.”

“You can still save him.”

“If I thought he could be saved I would have killed that human the moment they entered the woods.”

“You and I both know that is not true.  You have believed it from the beginning.  Child, please give me a chance to prove it to you.”

He moves toward you and take a step back, conjuring a circle of bones you point towards him threateningly.

“You don’t get to call me that.”

He comes closer, and you send the bones his way.  They phase right through him, just like you both knew they would.

“Do you think I’m going to  **trust**  you after what you did?”

You send him another attack.

“Do you think I’m going to  **forgive**  you?”

He stops moving.

“You  **knew**.  You  **knew**  this would happen, and you did nothing.”

He almost looks like he feels something.  He looks down in what you think is supposed to be a show of remorse.

“I tried to warn you.  I did not mean for this to happen.  I did not know until it was too late.”

Seeing him stop relaxes you a little.  You wipe something wet off your face with your sleeve.

“...No.  You didn’t know.  You didn’t even know how to work your own machines.  You were reckless and over-confident and now you and Papyrus are both dead because of it.”

You turn and walk back towards you house.  “I don’t want your help.”

 

You wonder if you should go and fight the human yourself, but quickly dismiss the idea.  After all, Papyrus was always a better fighter than you.  If he would prefer to die symbolically holding his arms out in peace than actually put up a fight... it would seem wrong to kill the human out of revenge.  You don’t want to fight them anyway.

Or maybe that’s just an excuse for being lazy.  You don’t really care.

Either way, you decide you really have nothing better to do than keep looking for the anomaly.  Parts of the timeline have been getting rewritten for years now, but you’re not entirely sure who’s causing it.  The old machine in your workshop can still tell you if the timeline has been reset completely, but that’s about it.  It isn’t broken, it was just useless from the beginning.  You rely on your own memories to know if it’s been partially set back.

And those setbacks have only gotten more frequent in the past few days.  You wonder if this is how it feels to other people when you take them through shortcuts - one minute you’d be talking to papyrus, and the next that conversation hasn’t even started yet, or you’re a few phrases backward in it, with no warning or any indication that it’s happened.

You’re not entirely sure how long it’s really been since Papyrus died, because you have no idea how many times the timeline’s shifted since then.  You don’t bother with clocks anymore.

But staring blankly at your own handwritten spreadsheets can only keep you occupied for so long.  You decide to go to Grilby’s.

Unfortunately, you aren’t completely alone when you enter the abandoned restaurant.

 

(SANS)

You don’t even bother to glare at him as you look for the ketchup behind the counter.

 

(I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING)

Before you have a chance to react, you feel one of his hands on the back of your head.  By the time you pull away from him, you’re not in Grilby’s anymore.

You land backwards in the snow.  Gaster looks down at you from a couple feet away.

“What the hell?” you ask, standing up, “What did you do?  Where are we?”



(THE QUESTION IS NOT WHERE BUT WHEN)



(WE HAVE NOT LEFT SNOWDIN FOREST)

“Wha... Why would you do that?  Take us back right now, you piece of shit.”  You lash out with your magic again, and he fades away without responding to you.

“Right, go ahead, just fuck everything up and leave like you always do.”  You shout to the place he was a moment ago.  “This is why I don’t want your help.  You  **don’t**  help, you just change everything for no reason.”

You raise a hand to your forehead and mutter under your breath.  “And now I’m stuck in the past again.  Because of you.  Again.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

When you’re done cussing at the thin air in front of you, you take a moment to look at your surroundings.  It’s definitely Snowdin woods, but the sentry station you work at isn’t there.  You walk over to where it should be, and realize it looks about how it did before you and Papyrus built it.  That means you’ve gone back at least five years.  You hope it’s just that.  If the other you is already in the underground, you might be able to get into the lab, get your equipment, and go back.  It’s a stretch, but you have no intention of staying here.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a sound in the trees.  You turn a little more suddenly than you meant to, and someone very small comes into view.

It’s... you?  You when you’re no older than thirteen??  In the middle of Snowdin woods????

Other Sans looks just as confused as you, so you decide to break the ice.

“Uh... hi.”

“...Hi.”

“So, normally this would be a weird question, but what year is it?”

“... 1998.  What year are you from?”

“2015, though it looks like I jumped timelines and not just, uh... time.”

“So why are you here?”

“Accident.” You say, a lot faster than you meant to.  Tiny you seems suspicious, and rightfully so, but you don’t feel like explaining the whole truth right now.

“Well, dad can probably help you get back.  Why don’t we just go ask him.”

Tiny you starts walking along the path and you follow a few paces behind.  It isn’t until you’re about twenty feet along the path that the implications of what he said hit you.

“Wait, what?  ‘Dad’?”

“Um, yeah.  Dad.  Wing Din Gaster.  The royal scientist.  Our dad.”

You start massaging your skull with one hand to fend off the growing headache.  “Ok, yeah, I’m definitely in a different timeline.”

“You... don’t have a dad?” Little you looks concerned.

“Nope, never did.  As long as I can remember, it was just me and Papyrus.”  That reminds you that you’re still wearing his scarf.  You touch it instinctively.  “Hey, where’s your Papyrus, anyway?”

“At home, asleep.  He refused to go to bed all night last night, said he wanted to ‘stand guard’.”  He gives a half-hearted laugh, and you can’t help but laugh along.  Little you starts to say something, and hesitates for a moment.  “What about **your** Papyrus?  Where is he?”

You know you can’t lie to the kid, because he’s literally a younger version of you, but you still don’t really want to talk about it.  You look away for a couple seconds before answering.  “... Dead.”

Little you’s eye sockets go black and he looks down, dragging his feet in the snow.  You wonder if you should say something, but he beats you to it.  “What happened?”

“It’s... a really long story.  Can I tell you after we talk to your dad?”

Little you doesn’t seem to think you’ll follow through with that, but nods anyway.  You decide to go ahead and say something.  “Hey, don’t worry about it, ok?  Just ‘cause it happened in my timeline... doesn’t mean it’ll happen in yours.  There’s a ton of timelines where it turns out alright.”

“So it’s just a matter of luck?”

“....Yeah, pretty much.”

You know that isn’t very comforting, but whatever.  It’s the truth.  And it’s exactly the opposite of what Gaster seems to want you to say, which is good.

By this time, you’re almost to Snowdin Town, so you turn to the kid and ask, “Hey, where are we going, anyway?”

“The lab in hotland.”

“In that case, follow me.”  You wink at him.  “I know a shortcut.”

You don’t know what you did before you had shortcuts.  In the blink of an eye, you’re at the door of the lab.  Little you looks impressed, but not entirely surprised.  Now that you think about it, you don’t remember _not_ having shortcuts at any point.  You’ve just gotten better at using them.

“Heh... Dad’s gonna be so freaked out when he sees you.”

“Looking forward to it?”

He nods.

“Me too.”

You’ve only ever seen the lab after Alphys became the royal scientist, so you’re not entirely prepared for what you find.  The whole first floor is in disarray.  It looks almost exactly like Gaster’s old lab on the surface.  You wonder for a moment how different the one from this timeline is.  You’re still angry at your Gaster, but it doesn’t seem like this one’s done anything wrong.

Yet.

You take a deep breath before following tiny you into the lab.

 

“Dad?  Daaaad!”

“One moment!”

You hear shuffling a little farther into the lab, and little you leans against a nearby table, looking at you.  “That’s dad speak for ‘it’s gonna be a while’.”

After a few seconds of waiting, you think you hear a crash from wherever Gaster is, followed by some uncharacteristically muffled swearing.  Little you barely reacts.  But he does look at you, and speaks after a long moment.

“So, you’re just trying to go back, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think dad’ll be able to get you there?”

“I hope so.”

“...Um, will you promise me something?”

You decide not to let him finish.  Last time you made a promise you ended up protecting your brother’s killer.  “I don’t make promises.”

Little you looks surprised.  You don’t feel like talking about it, so you don’t say anything else.

“...Okay, nevermind then.  But can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“If you’d known your brother was going to die, could you have prevented it?”

You have to think about it, because in a way, you did know.  You’d had the dreams and the nightmares, and you knew it was at least a possibility.  And if you’re being completely honest, you really could have killed that human the moment they left the ruins.  The only reason you didn’t was because you couldn’t break your promise to Toriel.  So you guess it depends on whether you’d known for sure before making that promise or not, but the answer is probably yes.

But hell if you’re going to fuck with this timeline by telling your past self that.

“No, probably not.”

He sees right through you.  You don’t care.  This timeline’s Gaster finally emerges from the depths of his lab.  “Alright, I’m sorry that took so long.  What’s-”

He pauses mid-word when he sees you.  Tiny you laughs at the expression of shock on his face.  You grin and hold out your hand.  “Hi.  I’m Sans from twenty years in the future of an alternate timeline.  I ended up here by accident and was wondering if you could help me get home.”


	3. Chapter 3

After a forty-five minute, completely fruitless conversation with what you can only assume is a completely innocent version of Gaster, you decide to let him work.  He agrees to lend you any equipment you need to try and go back to your timeline, and you thank him before leaving the lab.  You’ll take him up on it later, but right now you need a break.

Part of you thinks it’s pointless to try to get back anyway.  After all, you gave up trying to go home a long time ago, and it’s not as though your own timeline has much left to go back to.  But at this point, it isn’t about your life or Papyrus’s anymore.  It’s about the timeline.  And if you can’t go back in time to stop the reset, everything you’ve worked toward will have been pointless.

Not that it wasn’t going to be pointless anyway, but you at least want the satisfaction of having _tried_.

You open the door of the lab and step out, closing it behind you.  You hear something.

The bone attack comes out of nowhere and very nearly hits you.  You stumble backward and tense, looking for whoever it was and preparing an attack of your own.

But the person who steps into view is none other than this timeline’s version of you.  You hesitate in your confusion, but lower your attack after a moment.

“Kid, I am an older version of you from a timeline where everything went to shit.”  you say, noticing for the first time that little you has both his eyes, “I guarantee you don’t want to fight.”

“Maybe not,” he says, a lot calmer than he should be after almost killing you, “but if Dad hears any commotion he’ll come running, and if either of us get hurt I doubt you’ll make it back to your time.”

You’re still confused about the whole Gaster-giving-a-shit-about-you aspect of this timeline, but you believe him.  “You have a point,” you concede, letting your attack dissolve, “so what do you want?”

“The truth.” He keeps another attack prepared behind him.  “The whole truth, this time.  I want to know exactly what happened to Papyrus, and how to prevent it.”

You have to think about it.  This version of you never lost his eye, which means he has a max HP of more than just one, and you doubt he has any idea what happened to you.  Which means if you fight, he might just kill you before his Gaster shows up.  You’re good at dodging, but even at his age you were better at attacking.

On the other hand, you really don’t want to mess with this timeline.  And you _really_ don’t want to talk about all the things you could have done to prevent Papyrus’s death.

But... it occurs to you that this version of you has no idea about the anomaly.

You sigh.  “Alright, but I wasn’t kidding when I said it was a long story.  Get ready for the biggest exposition dump of your entire life.”

 

After about five straight minutes of trying to figure out where to start, little you decides he wants to have this conversation sitting down.  You readily agree, and before long you’re both situated at Grilby’s, neither of you bothering to explain what’s going on to the confused staff and patrons.

You take a sip of the ketchup and decide to start at the very beginning.

“So, my Papyrus and I weren’t born in the underground.  As kids we lived on the surface, about a hundred years after monsters were freed.  We didn’t have any parents either.  It was just him and me for as long as either of us can remember.  When we were about nine and two, I met Gaster for the first time.

“He worked for the government, as part of this science division called the DTSC, and he was studying the nature of time and space, and magic able to manipulate time and space.  Magic like our shortcuts.  So, he had this machine that could tell when things weren’t working quite like they should, and it picked up on me.  He asked me to be his apprentice, by which he really meant guinea pig, and in exchange offered us a place to stay.

“I didn’t really trust it, but Papyrus needed a home and I was too selfish to give him away, so I agreed.”

You take another sip of ketchup and take in little you’s reaction.  He actually doesn’t seem surprised at all, which worries you a bit, but you decide to ask about it later.

“I actually did learn a lot by working with him, but he didn’t do much for the sake of safety, always more concerned about the science itself.  The only reason he ever had for doing things was just to see what would happen.  There were others like that who worked in our building, but he was always the most... intense.”  You laugh a little, and decide to skip the part about how you lost your eye because of him.  “We kept monitoring timespace, and eventually we found something.  This massive anomaly around the decade of 2010.  Timelines stopping and starting, weaving in and out of each-other... until, suddenly, everything ends.

“Gaster and I weren’t the only ones in the lab who were worried about that.  We decided someone had to go check it out, and Gaster made a machine that could bring him here.  So he left, with the intention to find the anomaly, study it, find out if it’s dangerous, and report back.”

You take another sip of ketchup.  You remember how your old friends reacted when they learned he was going on his own.  You remember how they took care of you after he left.  You remember how scared they were, when it was two months later.

“He never reported back.”

You take a deep breath before continuing.  “The others were worried.  They thought the anomaly must have killed him, or somehow stopped him from communicating with us, and this was bigger than any of us thought.  So, they asked me to go after him.  I wouldn’t go without Papyrus, but when I asked him, he agreed right away, knowing we might not ever make it back.  He said he didn’t care, because he didn’t have any friends on the surface anyway, and he thought it was important for me to do Gaster’s job for him.

“When they sent me, though, they didn’t just ask for me to find the anomaly and study it.  They asked me to find a way to stop it.”

You finish off the ketchup.  Little you continues to say nothing.

“Turns out, Gaster never found the anomaly.  He overshot by about twenty years and discovered that his machine couldn’t take him forward in time the way it took him back.  We ran into the same problem, and I never found the anomaly either.  Flash forward ten years.  I’ve given up on getting back, Papyrus is trying to get into the royal guard, we’re both working as sentries in Snowdin woods.  The idea is to look for humans and capture one if it comes through, so Asgore can take it’s soul and use it to destroy the barrier.

“One day, a human comes through.  Except it’s not just any human.  It comes through Snowdin, and it kills every monster it comes across.  Papyrus tries to talk it down, so... so it kills him, too.”

You grab his scarf with one hand.  You’re about to start crying again.  “Before then, I’d started having dreams, about a human coming through, and in some of them Papyrus died, but in others, they turned out to be a good person, and in some dreams, they managed to destroy the barrier themself.  I didn’t realize until today, but those dreams were all real, they were just showing me to different timelines.  I guess I just happened to be in the wrong one.”

Little you finally speaks.  “So, if you had killed the human before they reached Snowdin, Papyrus would still be alive?”

“...Maybe.  I can’t say for sure.”

You decide you need to tell the kid what you know about the anomaly, but you don’t really want to risk being overheard when you do, so you stand up.  “Hey, come on.  I want to show you something.”

 

You bring little you to the most secluded place you know: the park bench in Waterfall.

He looks at you like you’ve gone insane.  “A bench?  Why are you showing me a bench?”

“Oh, the bench is nothing special,” you say, sitting down on it, “I just don’t want to be overheard when I tell you this next part.”

Little you looks around for a few moments before sitting down next to you.  “We’re right next to an echo flower.”

“I can just tell it something else later.”  You take a breath to tell little you about the nature of the “everything ends” part of your spiel, but you’re interrupted by someone behind you.



(THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT)

Little you stands up and launches away from the bench.  You grit your teeth before standing up and turning around.

But it’s the kid who speaks first.  “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?”

“That’s my version of Gaster.  Unfortunately, when he fell into the CORE, it didn’t kill him all the way.  That’s what’s left of him.”



“English.” you interrupt.  Little you inches in your direction, seeming to relax a bit.

Gaster scowls.  “Sans, I do not think you entirely understand the nature of your predicament.” 

“Are you saying you know better?”

“Yes.”

Little you is directly behind you.  Gaster keeps going.

“Has it occurred to you that the human and the anomaly have something to do with each other?”

“How is that relevant?” you ask, moving an arm to shield the smaller you.

“Because it is not the human that killed your brother, Sans.  It is the anomaly.”

“...Now you’re just speaking nonsense.  Has nonexistence finally started messing with your head?  Or are you saying the human IS the anomaly?”

“The human is nothing more than a vessel.  The anomaly used them to kill.”

“What does any of that have to do with this timeline?  Are you trying to prove some point about how we always end up there no matter what?  Are you trying to make excuses by showing me a version of yourself that didn’t fuck everything up?  What’s the point of this?”

“What did you do?”  Whispers the Sans behind you.  Gaster inches backward.

“I am trying to atone for my mistakes.  I wanted to give you a chance, child.  The anomaly can still be stopped.”

“Y o u  d o n ‘ t  g e t  t o  c a l l  m e  t h a t .”

Before Gaster has a chance to react, you’ve sent most of an attack in his direction.  He doesn’t bother to dodge, but seems to get the hint, and fades away again.

Having used more magic than you really should have, you sit down on the bench to rest your head.  Little you looks pale, and hesitates for a long moment before joining you on the bench.

“What happened to your eye?”

 


	4. Chapter 4

It was three years after you had first met Gaster.  He wanted to test a new invention of his: the Gaster Blaster.  The only thing he ever named after himself.  You were testing it out on a dummy, and as you lined it up for a shot, the back of it cracked.

The impact landed directly on your right eye, and you felt your skull crack.  Your vision blurred.  Your HP dropped to zero.  You saw Gaster run to his desk and grab a syringe.  Just before your body disintegrated all the way, you felt a pinprick in your arm.

That’s the last thing you remember before blacking out.

Later, Gaster would tell you that he had injected you with a syringe full of pure determination.  That, combined with the magic of the best healers in the lab, wouldn’t have been enough to keep you alive if it weren’t for the humans who worked with you.

Normally, monster bodies don’t have enough physical matter to handle those concentrations of determination, but as time wore on and you became more and more dependent on your physical form, Gaster started giving you transfusions of human blood, donated by the humans in the lab.  It was enough, barely, that you managed to stay alive, and after a long period of being comatose, you woke up.

All you remember is that it hurt.  And that when you finally woke up, the first thing you saw was Papyrus.  He looked desperate and terrified and you swore to yourself that you’d never make him feel like that again.

“...And since then, I can’t get it to glow when I use magic, and I can’t see out of it very well, and I have to drink ketchup because it’s the only monster food with enough physical matter to keep me going, and I only have one HP.”

Little you listens quietly as you finish your story, holding his knees with both hands.  When you’re done, he barely moves for a while afterward.

When he finally does stand up, he says, “I want to go home now.” and leaves without another word.  You don’t follow him.  You need to think.

If what Gaster just said is true, your timeline is in deeper shit than you realized.  If the thing that killed your brother is also the thing that’s been fucking with the timeline... you guess you were right when you assumed it wasn’t human.  This means you’re going to have to try to stop it.  Which probably means fighting, which you really don’t want to do.

Despite everything, you still don’t want to die.

You know you can give it one hell of a fight first, but something that can just go back in time at will can’t really be beaten.  Though, you guess it’s worth a shot to try and get it to quit.  Who knows, maybe it’ll get frustrated enough that it’ll stop.  Maybe you’ll find a way to talk it down.  You have to try.

But that still leaves the issue of getting back to your timeline in the first place.  You doubt your Gaster is going to help any, and even with all the equipment belonging to this timeline’s Gaster, you don’t think you can do it on your own.

“I want to go home now.” the echo flower repeats.  You laugh a little under your breath.

“Me too, kid.”

 

After a few hours of working in the other Gaster’s lab, so far to no avail, you realize you never did tell little you anything about the anomaly.  You consider going over to wherever he lives and telling him now, but you really doubt he has any interest in seeing you again.  Also, you don’t really want to run into this timeline’s Papyrus.  He would probably get really scared and confused if you tell him why you have his scarf, and you’d scare and confuse yourself a little by seeing him again, as much as you want to.

So you get out a piece of paper and start writing.

 

Sans-

There’s one thing I never got to tell you, and you said you wanted the whole truth, so, be careful what you wish for, I guess.

I just want you to keep something in mind about the human I mentioned.  If your timeline ends up the same as mine, the biggest threat isn’t to you, or Papyrus, or even monster kind.  The threat is to the timeline - the nature of reality itself.  A person who reaches the castle by killing every monster they can find will go on to destroy the entire world.  Don’t try to stop them before they reach the castle.  They’ll just jump to a different timeline where you haven’t figured it out yet.  If you confront them at the castle you have a chance of stopping them before they destroy everything else.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but please understand.  If anyone can talk them out of fighting, it’s Papyrus, so give him a chance.  And if it doesn’t work, if the human kills him anyway, just... don’t let his death cloud your judgement, ok?  It’s going to hurt, but... this is bigger than us.  It’s bigger than everything.  And if the human you end up with wants Papyrus dead, there’s no stopping it.

So please, don’t do anything stupid.

-Sans

 

You can’t  believe you’re telling your past self to do nothing and let Papyrus die, but there’s still a  chance that he ends up with one of the good ones.  You fold up the note and write FOR SANS’ EYES ONLY on the back, then head back to the bench and leave it there.

You hear Gaster materialize behind you.

“So, let me see if I’ve got this straight.” you turn to face him.  “You wanted to get me to tell the me in this timeline what’s going to happen, right?”



(YES)

“Well, I’ve done that.  Will you take us back, now?  I want to go home.”

A few seconds later, you’re standing in Grilby’s again.

 

You head back to your workshop and check the machine.  This timeline is the third reset so far.  Snowdin is completely empty.  You start walking toward Waterfall and get out your phone.

Alphys picks up after a few rings.

“Sans?!  You’re alive?”

“Yeah.  Are you safe?”

“Y-yeah.  I evacuated most of Hotland before the human arrived.  Where are you?  Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.  Look, there’s something you need to know.  Remember when we first met, and I told you I was looking for an anomaly in the timespace continuum, and that’s the reason I’m here in the first place?”

“Um, yeah, but,”

“It’s because of the human.”

Alphys is silent for a good five seconds.  You keep going.

“So, uh, I’m going to go do my job, now.”

“What?  You’re going to f-fight them?”

“Yeah.”

“B-but... Sans, they’ll kill you.  They already k-killed Undyne... you don’t...”

“Alphys...”

“I don’t want to lose you, too.”

“I know.  I don’t want to lose me, either.  But I’ve thought really hard about this, and it’s the only way.  There’s still a chance I can get them to stop.  It’s slim, but, I can’t just let it happen, you know?  I... I can’t afford not to care anymore.”

Alphys doesn’t say anything.

“Stay safe, ok?” you try your best to say it like nothing’s wrong, but that isn’t really how it comes out.  You’re starting to cry again.  “If this doesn’t work, uh, I want you to promise me something.”

“...What?”

“Stay alive.  There’s no point to what I’m about to do if nobody lives through it anyway.  Keep everyone safe, and don’t die, okay?”

You hear Alphys’s breathing get shaky on the other end.  “O-okay.  Okay.  I... I promise.  B-but, Sans, I want you to do something for me, too.”

“Sure.”

“If you’re going to fight, don’t half-ass it.  Make that human pay for what they did.”

“...Don’t worry.  I will.”


	5. Chapter 5

You remember the day you first came to the underground like it was yesterday.  You had told Papyrus over and over again that he didn’t have to do this, that if you go you might never come back, and that you would never leave him behind.  He told you over and over that it was okay, that he understood why you needed to go, and that he wasn’t really going to miss the surface anyway.

The others in the lab didn’t want you to take Papyrus along.  They said it was too dangerous, that he was so young, and nobody had a right to put him in such a dangerous situation, but you refused to leave without him, and Papyrus refused to be the reason you didn’t go.

So you left.  And when you arrived in the underground, you pinned your little badge onto your blue jacket and started asking around.  It wasn’t long before you were pointed in the direction of the lab.  So, you got Papyrus a room in the first hotel you found and went to find the royal scientist, the great Dr. Alphys.

It was pretty clear when you arrived that she didn’t get visitors often.  The lab was pretty messy, though not nearly as bad as Gaster’s always was.  When you asked about him, she told you everything, and you can’t remember ever having been more angry at your mentor.

Gaster had overshot by twenty years.  And instead of finding a way back, he started working as the royal scientist, and built a giant generator to power an entire civilization.  And promptly fell into it and died.  And now thanks to him you and Papyrus were stuck in the underground a hundred years in the past.

But the worst part was that he’d left something in his lab, something he wrote in his code before he died, that you found when Alphys agreed to let you rummage through his blueprints and records.  It was a letter addressed to you, that detailed everything Alphys had just told you, and said that there was no way back.  It said that he’d known that was a possibility when he left, but he never bothered to test it.  And it wasn’t long after that when you saw his ghost wandering about for the first time.

He was only seen when he wanted to be seen, which meant that you’re the only one that saw him.  Papyrus never knew.  You told him the machine was broken, and he believed you.  And you’d carved out a life for yourselves down here.

All you have left of that world is the photo album in your workshop.  You still miss it, but you can’t really say you regret leaving.  After all, down here you already have everything you need.  You even have friends, and you’re closer to Papyrus than you’ve ever been.

You’d all but forgotten about the anomaly you were sent to stop, until it started a few years ago.

You take a little solace in knowing that after this, you won’t have to worry about it anymore.  You’ll be dead.  Or the anomaly will be gone.  Or you’ll be right back here with no memory of it.  Either way, you won’t have to worry about remembering what comes next.

 

The human is in a worse state than you expected when it arrives.  Its grip on the knife shakes visibly, and it’s laughing through it’s tears as you hit it with attack after attack, and kill it over and over again.

And it keeps coming back, more and more determined each time.

And each time it gets a little closer to beating you.

Eventually, you stop for a moment during your turn to rest.  You know this didn’t work when Papyrus tried it, but you decide it wouldn’t be right not to try again.

“I know you didn’t answer me before, but...”

The human pauses.

“Somewhere in there, I can feel it.  There’s a glimmer of a good person inside of you.”

It’s smile fades.

“C’mon, buddy.  Do you remember me?”

It lowers the knife, just a little.

“Please, if you’re listening... let’s forget all this, ok?”

It waits for a long moment to see if you’re done, before falling to its knees and bursting into tears.  You’re taken aback, but you don’t move from where you are, ready for them to pick up the knife again.

The human’s whole body is shaking, and they whisper so that you can barely hear.

“I... I’m sorry.... I’m s-so sorry, Sans.  I...”  They wipe their face with a sleeve, the knife lays abandoned on the ground in from of them.  “I remember you.  I r-remember... everything... I just... I don’t want to do this.  Sans, I-” they shrink into themself, releasing a few more sobs, “I’m sorry.”

The human doesn’t say anything else for a long time.  You don’t dare move, but you hope, for a moment, that it worked, that they’ll change their mind and give up.

Eventually, the human moves, and picks up the knife again.

“...No.” it says.

It stands up, wiping away the last of its tears.

“No, I... I made my decision a long time ago.”

For the first time in the whole fight, it looks you in the eye.

“I have to see this through to the end.  I have to know what happens next.”

It raises the knife.

“I’m sorry.”


	6. Epilogue

When the human arrives, you’ve almost forgotten the advice of older-you.  But you made a promise to that old lady in the door, so when they come out of the Ruins, you decide to leave them be for now.

And when they date Papyrus instead of killing him, you guess you got lucky.

 

It isn’t until the barrier has been gone for years when that particular memory comes into play.  Frisk asks you to take them to what’s left of the underground, and you agree.  When you ask, they’ll only tell you that they want to find an old friend, and you can’t really argue with that, so before long you’re both crossing the place the barrier should be.

It looks like nobody has been down here for years, which is probably true.  Some people consider the underground cursed, and nobody’s very fond of talking about it, much less visiting it.

You only get as far as the throne room before Frisk stops and turns to look at you.

“Sans, will you promise me something?”

“Depends.”

“Promise you’ll kill me if I attack you.”

You feel your heart skip a beat.  “What?”

Frisk looks away.  “I want to try something, and I’m not sure if it’s going to work.  And if it doesn’t, I might try to kill you, and if that happens it’ll already be too late for me, so I want you to promise to stop me from hurting anyone else.”

You remember future-you’s warning, but you’re still not ready to accept this.  “What... what makes you think I’d even be able to?  I mean, I”m probably the only monster who hasn’t tried to kill you yet.”

Frisk looks genuinely surprised.  “You don’t remember?”

You don’t answer.  You almost ask what they’re so surprised you don’t remember, but you think you know.  You hadn’t really wanted to believe that this was the same person who killed that other Papyrus, but there isn’t really another explanation.  And you know the timeline’s been reset more than a few times.

Frisk’s expression fades from shock to guilt, and they take a step away from you, running a hand through their hair nervously.  “The way you looked when I first got to Snowdin,” they whisper, “I could’ve sworn.”

“I dream about it, though.” you say, pretending not to hear their last statement.

Frisk nods.  “Nightmares.”

“...Yeah.”

“Well,” they straighten a bit, but still don’t look you in the eye, “You deserve an explanation, but to be honest there really isn’t one.  The point is, some of the more... far reaching consequences of what I did might be about to come into play, so I might end up trying to hurt you again.  If that happens, you’ll stop me, right?”

You hesitate longer than you probably should.  If the kid really thinks it could happen again, you’re in no position to refuse, but you’re pretty damn curious what they’re about to do that could cause that.

“Just promise me, okay?  I don’t think I can do it all again.”

“...Okay.  I promise.”

“...Thanks.”

Satisfied, they turn around and shout at the caves.  “HEY FLOWEY COME HERE I WANT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING.”

There’s no response.  Frisk looks annoyed.

“FLOWEY GET YOUR LEAFY ASS OUT HERE NOW.”

“Jeez, language.” you say, but a voice comes back from somewhere in the room anyway.

“LEAVE ME ALONE YOU LITTLE SHIT.”

This time you shout back.  “IF YOU ‘RE TEACHING FRISK CURSE WORDS I SWEAR TO GOD.”

After a moment of silence, the little yellow flower appears in the room, looking at you with a mix of confusion and disgust.  “Why’d you bring _him_?”

“Reasons.” says Frisk, calmly, before sitting cross legged facing the flower.  “Flowey, I want to try something.”

“Again?”  Flowey sighs.  “Why haven’t you given up on this already?  I told you not to come back here.”

“I want to let Chara talk to you.”

The flower says nothing for a long moment, looking at Frisk in confusion.  “What?  Why?  How??  I thought they left after we opened the barrier.  Have...”  At whatever thought Flowey just had, his expression of shock turns to fear.  “have they been listening this whole time?”

Frisk nods.  “They said they have something specific they want to tell you, and they want to say it themself, so if you’re okay with it, I’m gonna let them.”

“I...”  Flowey goes back to just looking really confused.  “Um... okay.”

“If things go wrong, just run, okay?  That’s what Sans is here for.”

“Ha, you think he can...” Flowey stops himself, “actually, that makes a lot of sense.”

Frisk giggles.  “Okay, ready?”

Flowey nods.

 

Frisk closes their eyes and Chara opens them.  They stretch their arms and look at their hands, balling and relaxing their fists a few times with a wide, disturbing smile.

“Man, you forget after a while how nice it feels to have _limbs_.”

“Heh, yeah.”  Flowey seems to relax a little.  “I’ve been there.”

“Asriel,” Chara says without looking at him or relaxing their smile, “what the fuck did you mean when you said I wasn’t a nice person?”

Flowey recoils.  You tense up a bit, before Chara looks up at him and laughs.

“Calm down, Asriel,” they say to a confused Flowey, “I’m just messing with ya.”

Flowey actually smiles, but lowers his voice when he says, “Can you just call me Flowey when we’re in front of the skeleton?”

“Absolutely not,” says Chara, waving one hand dismissively, “Flowey is a dumb name.”

Flowey laughs.  “Yeah, but...  It was Dad’s idea.”

“Well that explains it.”  Chara rests one hand on the ground.  “Why’d he get to be in charge of naming everything?”

“‘Cause Mom would’ve given everything puns for names, like Snowdin”

Both of them laugh for a minute, all the tension in the air having dissipated.  After a long moment, Flowey’s expression straightens.  “Chara, what did you want to tell me?”

Chara thinks for a moment before responding.  “You know Frisk’s idea to bring you to the surface in a pot, so you can see the sun and stuff?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you should do it.”

Flowey says nothing, looking surprised.

“Because,” Chara continues, looking at Frisk’s hands again, “Frisk is gonna keep trying to help me, too, and if I have to go through that, I don’t want to do it alone.”  They sigh.  “Besides, I miss you.”

Flowey hesitates before responding, “I thought you were still mad...” Chara looks up, and he looks away.  “About the plan.  You died for the sake of the underground and when I needed to do my part, I chickened out.  I thought you would hate me for it.”

Chara shrugs.  “I did, at first.  But it was a dumb plan anyway.  I shouldn’t have expected a crybaby like you to go through with it.”

Flowey shrivels into himself.

“...Besides, if there’s one thing I learned following this loser around,” Chara gestures at themself, “it’s that sometimes it’s okay to back down from a fight.”

Flowey looks back up, confused, then smiles.  “So, we’re okay?”

“...Yeah.  We’re okay.”

 

After a long moment of silence, Chara speaks again.  “So, I have to give this body back eventually.  I might be able to get Frisk to let me do this again, but I don’t know.  They made a big show of trusting me today, but they still brought Sans and everything.”  Neither of them look at you.  Flowey nods.  “So, just, come back up with us, ok?  And, remember that I’m still here.  Even when you don’t see me.”

“Okay.”

Chara leans forward and hugs Flowey.  After a moment, He relaxes into the hug.  You can barely hear him whisper.  “I missed you, Chara.”

“I missed you too, Asriel.”

 

“Well, that went well.”  Frisk tells you as they carry Flowey in a flower pot they’d kept concealed in their backpack on the way down.

“Easy for you to say,” says Flowey, “I can barely feel my roots in here, it’s so small.”

“We can get you a bigger one later.” says Frisk, “Ready to see the sun?”


End file.
